^ i 

r^ FRANKLIN'S KEY 

A Brief Biography 
of the 

GREATEST AMERICAN 

BY 

Wayne Whipple 



Franklin Printing Co. 

PUBLISHERS 

PHILADELPHIA 

Copyright. 1910, by Waynk Whipplk 



FEANKLIN'S KEY IS YOUES ^ » 



BY means of a key Benjamin Franklin per- 
formed his best-known experiment, that of 
attracting the lightning from the clouds and 
proving that lightning is identical with elec- 
tricity. But the iron key on the kite-string was not 
the real key to Franklin's success in life. Franklin's 
true key was a common-sense view of practical, 
every-day life. It is a kind of pass-key which will 
unlock the door of opportunity for you. 

Industry is a great and valuable thing so far as 
it goes, but it does not go far enough. Many make 
money, but they seem unable to keep it. * * To have 
and to hold" is the sum and substance of success 
and happiness in life. Of all ' * Poor Eichard 's ' ' wise 
maxims none contains the seed of a more flourishing 
and wide-spreading tree of truth than that homely 
little phrase: 

'M Fenny saved is a Penny earned." 
Franklin's life-story is here presented as a prac- 
tical illustration of the success which is possible to 
every one who really wishes for it. Franklin accom- 
plished great things by taking care of the little 
things of life as they came §ilong. Franklin's Key 
is here offered you with-aurj compliments and best 
wishes for your welfare -gii3* prosperity. Will you 
take Franklin's Key and make it the master-key to 
your own success in life? Sincerely, 

LAWEENCE SAVINGS AND TEUST COMPANY, 

New Castle, Pa. 



>^256175 



FRANKLIN'S ANCESTEY AND BIRTH 



/^^HE Franklin family in England lived only 
IJ thirty miles from Sulgrave Manor, Washing- 
ton 's ancestral home, not far from the busy 
town of Northampton. The great Franklin's father 
Josiah, came to America in 1682, and settled in 
Boston, where his tenth and youngest son, Benjamin, 
was born, January 6, old style, or January 17, ac- 
cording to the present reckoning, in 1706. When an 
old man, Franklin wrote of his ancestors, from infor- 
mation furnished by an aged uncle, as follows: 

"I learned that the family had lived in the same village 
Ecton, m Northamptonsliire, for three hundred years and 
how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the \ime when 
the name of Franklin [a small landowner], that before was 
the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a 
surname, when others took surnames all over the kingdom) 
on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith's 

business, which had con- 
tinued in the family till this 
time, the eldest son being 
always bred to that busi- 
ness, a custom which he 
and my father followed as 
to their eldest sons. When 
I searched the registers at 
Ecton, I found an account 
of their births, marriages 
and burials from the year 
1555 only, there being no 
registers kept in that par- 
ish at any time preceding. 
By that register I per- 
ceived that I was the 
youngest son of the young- 
est son for five generations 
back." 




II 



A LEADER AMONG THE BOYS 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN tells us that he was 
sent to a grammar school when eight years 
old. Then his father took him out and 
put him in a school to learn writing and arith- 
metic. "I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but 
failed in arithmetic," writes Franklin. At ten he 
was taken home from even that school, to help his 
father make candles and boil soap. "I disliked the 
trade, ' ' says Franklin, ' ' and had a strong inclination 
for the sea, but my father declared against it." He 
tells the following story of his experience as a 
leader among the boys of Boston town: 

"There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill- 
pond, on the edge of Avhich. at high water, we used to s^tand 
o fih for minnows. By much trampling we had made )t 
a inere quagmire. My proposal was to build a ^vjiarf thexe 
fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large 
heap of stones, which were intended for a new house near 
the marsh, and which would very well suit our pur- 
pose. Accordinaly, in the evening when the woikme 
were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows, and 
working with them diligently like so 
raanv emmets [ants], sometimes two 
or three to a stone, we brought them 
all away and built our little wharf. 
The next morning the workmen were 
surprised at missing the stones, which 
were found in our wharf. Inquiry 
Avas made after the removers. ^\( 
were discovered and complained of. 
Several of us were corrected by our 
fathers; and, though I pleaded the 
usefulness of the work, mine convinced 
me that nothing was useful which was 
not honest." 




ni 

HOW HE ''ESCAPED BEING A POET'* 

^I^^UCH as Benjamin disliked the soap and 
■ ^ I ■ candle business, he stayed and helped at it 
•^ ' ^ for two years. For fear the boy would 
run away to sea, Josiah Franklin took him to 
see other tradesmen, ** joiners, bricklayers, turners, 
braziers, etc., at work," but none of them suited 
young Ben, who afterward wrote, referring- to this 
time: 

"From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little 
money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. 
. . . This bookish inclination determined my father to make 
me a printer, though he already had one son in that pro- 
fession. In 1717 my brother James returned from England 
with a press and letters [type] to set up his business in 
Boston. I liked it much better than that of my father, but 
still had a hankering for the sea." 

The next year, when he was twelve, Benjamin was 
' ' bound, ' ' or apprenticed, to work for his brother at 
the printer's trade until he was twenty-one. As he 
was ingenious, industrious and apt to learn, he be- 
came very useful. He borrowed good books of the 
booksellers' clerks and read them through over night, 
often sitting up until early morning in order to finish 
a volume to be delivered to a customer next day. 

Benjamin also tried his hand at writing ballads 
on current topics, which his brother encouraged him 
to put in type and sell about town. Of these Franklin 
wrote : 

"They were wretched stuff. . . . The first sold wonderfully, 
the event being recent, having made a great noi.se. This 
flattered my vanity ; but my father discouraged me by ridi- 
culing my performances, and tell me verse-makers were gen- 
erally beggars. So I escaped being a poet, most probably 
a very bad one." 



IV 



15 



TWO EEAL BOSTON BOYS 

HE Franklin boy formed a friendship with an- 
other apprentice named Collins. Both liked 
to argue. Benjamin goes on to relate: 

"A question was once, somehow or other, started between 
Collins and me, of the propriety of educating the female 
sex in learning, and tlieir abilities for study. He was of 
the opinion that it was improper, and that they were natu- 
rally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, perhaps a 
little for dispute's sake." 

About this time Benjamin met with an odd vol- 
ume of the ''Spectator/' which he read with delight 
and practiced writing in his own words the ideas ex- 
pressed therein and comparing his language with that 
of Addison. In this way he acquired the simple 
stj^le which is still read with pleasure, while that 
of his contemporaries now seems stilted and pedantic. 

When about sixteen years old he ' ' happened to 
meet with a book, written by one Tryon, recommend- 
ing a vegetable diet." One attraction this mode of 
living had for him was its cheapness, which enabled 
him to put the money he thus saved from his stomach 
into his head. He made an arrangement with his 
brother to let him board him- 
self. Aside from saving most 
of his board money to buy books, 
he read during the time the 
others spent in going to and from 
their meals. He studied arithmetic 
to make up his earlier deficiency in 
that branch, read books on naviga- 
tion, and even devoured Locke on 
"Human Understanding," and 
Xenophon's "Memorabilia of Soc-' 
rates." He also learned to show 
modesty and tact in discussion. 




A ONE-BOY-POWER NEWSPAPEE 

^ J W'FTE'R two or three years James Franklin 
^n4 started a newspaper, which he named ''The 
^.— •% New England Courant." Benjamin naively 
relates that friends tried to dissuade his 
brother from an enterprise so risky since there was 
already one other weekly newspaper in America! 
Could Benjamin Franklin return to his accustomed 
haunts in this twentieth century of grace he would, 
no doubt, be greatly interested in the telephone, tele- 
graph and airships, but his widest astonishment would 
be over the modern daily newspaper. 

''The New England Courant," was, in the opinion 
of its time, a sensational sheet. Its ''yellow" ten- 
dencies got James Franklin into trouble. He was 
censured by the Assembly of the Province, and sent 
to prison for an offensive article, and his license to 
print was revoked by the House. So, to evade this 
decree, Benjamin Franklin's name appeared as pub- 
lisher at the head of its columns. It thus became a 
oue-boy-power newspaper. Benjamin secretly wrote 
articles, set up the type and printed them off on 
a foot-power press. When others praised his 
articles the youth let it be known that he 
was the writer of them. James 
Franklin, instead of being 
pleased with Ben's success, be- 
came more ill-natured and un- 
reasonable, beating and illtreat- 
ing his bright brother. Many 
years after this, Franklin wrote 
charitably of his quick-tempered 
brother and master: 

' ' He was otherwise not an ill- 
natured man; perhaps I was 
too saucy and provoking." 




VI 
BENJAMIN STEALS AWAY FEOM HOME 

JAMES FRANKLIN had a hot temper. He 
struck and abused his bound brother once too 
often. Taking advantage of his release from 
the apprenticeship (in order to make it legal for 
the youth to be announced as the publisher of the 
newspaper) Benjamin decided to flee from bondage 
to his brother. Fearing the lad would leave him, 
James Franklin w^ent around among the few Boston 
printers and gave the boy such a bad name that Ben- 
jamin could not have found employment in his home 
town if he had tried. Their father took James's part, 
so Ben concluded to steal aAvay to New York, the 
nearest city in which he could secure employment at 
his trade. His bookish friend, the disputing appren- 
tice, aided him in the following manner, as Franklin 
himself explains: 

"My friend Collins, therefore, undertook to manage a 
little for me. He agreed with the captain of a New York 
sloop for my passage. ... So I sold some of my books to 
raise a little money, was taken on board privately, and as 
we had a fair wind, in three days I found myself in New 
York, near three hundred miles from home, a boy of but 
seventeen, without the least recommendation to, or knowl- 
edge of any person in the place, and with very little mone. 
in my pocket. 

"My inclinations for the sea Avere by this time worn out, 
or I might now have gratified them. But, having a trade, 
and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered my 
service to the printer in the place, old Mr. William Brad- 
ford, who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, but 
removed from thence upon a quarrel with George Keith. He 
could give me no employment . . . but, says he, 'My son 
at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand. . . . He 
may employ you.' " 



VII 

ON TO PHILADELPHIA LOOKING FOE WORK 

^•^•O the runaway apprentice had to go on to 
r^^ Philadelphia to find work. He sailed to 
f""^ Amboy, on the Jersey coast, in a leaky boat 
with rotten sails, and nearly lost his life. Then he 
walked fifty miles across New Jersey in a drenching 
rain, from Amboy to Burlington, a town on the 
Delaware River. Besides being heartsick for fear 
he could get nothing to do at his trade, poor Ben 
was feverish and really ill. He told, afterwards, that, 
during that long tramp through rain and mud, he 
fervently wished he had not left home. He arrived at 
the river town on Saturday, just in time to miss the 
regular boat for Philadelphia. Rather than wait till 
Tuesday for the next passenger craft he hailed a pass- 
ing boat which he helped to row nearly all the way 
down. He made his ''entry" into Philadelphia, at 
the Market Street wharf, "about eight or nine 
o'clock" Sunday morning, October 10, 1723. He 
thus describes his first appearance there: 

"I was in my working dress, my best clot'aes being to 
come round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my 
pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I 
knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued 
with travelling, rowing and want of rest, I was very hungry : 
and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and 
about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of 
the boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account 
of my rowing, but I insisted on their taking it. A man 
being sometimes more generous when he has a little money 
than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being 
thought to have but little." 



vin 



FEANKLIN MEETING HIS FUTURE WIFE 



- ^^ATUEALLY. after the labors of the preceding 
R ■ day and night, Benjamin was hungry. Ask- 
' ^ ing for a three-penny loaf at a baker's he 
was given *' three great puffy rolls." As his pockets 
were already full, he ''walked off with a roll under 
each arm and eating the other." He continues: 

"Thus I went up Market street as far as Fourth street, 
passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father; 
when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I 
made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous ap- 
pearance. Then I turned and went down Chestnut street 
and part of Walnut street, eating my roll all the way, and, 
coming round, found myself again at Market street wharf, 
near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draught of 
the river water ; and, being filled with one of my rolls, 
gave the other two to a woman and her child that came 
down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to 
go farther. 

"Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by 
this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all 
walking the same way. I joined 
them, and thereby was led into the 
great meeting-house of the Quakers 
near the mai'ket. I sat down among 
them, and, after looking round 
awhile and hearing nothing said, be- 
ing very drowsy through labor and 
want of rest the preceding night, I 
fell fast asleep, and continued so till 
the meeting broke up, when one was 
kind enough to rouse me. This was, 
therefore, the first house I was in, 
or slept in, in Philadelphia." 




IX 



FINDING EMPLOYMENT 



/"^ TUMBLING out of the meeting-house the 
r^^ young printer was directed to an inn where 
r"^ he went right to bed and slept the rest of 
that day and all night. At Printer Bradford's, where 
he reported early Monday morning, he found they had 
just hired a hand, and there was no place for him. 
There was another printer, Keimer by name, in town. 
Franklin tells of apj)lying to him: 

"Keimer's printing house, I found, consisted of an old 
shattered press and one small, worn-out font of English, 
which he was then using himself. . . . There being no copy, 
but one pair of eases, ... no one could help him. I en- 
deavored to put his press (which he had not yet used and 
of which he understood nothing) into order fit to be worked 
with. I returned to Bradford's who gave me a little job to 
do for the present, and there I lodged and dieted. A few 
days after, Keimer sent for me. ... He had got another 
pair of cases and a pamphlet to reprint, on which he set 
me to work. 

"These two printers I found poorly qualified for their 
business. Bradford had not been bred to it and was very 
illiterate ; and Keimer, though something of a scholar, was 
a mere compositor, knowing nothing of press work. . . . 
He did not like my lodging 
at Bradford's while I worked 
with him. He had a house, in- 
deed, but without furniture, so 
he could not lodge me, but he 
got me a lodging at Mr. Read's, 
before mentioned, who was the 
owner of his house ; and, my 
chest and clothes being come by 
this time, I made rather a more 
respectable appearance in the 
eyes of Miss Read than I had 
done when she first happened to 
see me eating my roll in the 
street." 




TWO DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 



I BEGAN now to have some acquaintances among the 
young people of the town," continues Franklin, "that 
were lovers of reading, with whom I spent my even- 
ings very pleasantly; and gaining money by my in- 
dustry and frugality, I lived very agreeably, forgetting 
Boston as much as I could, and not desiring that any there 
should know where I resided, except my friend Collins, who 
was in my secret, and kept it when I wrote to him." 

Franklin had a brother-in-law, Captain Holmes, who 
was master of a sloop trading between Boston and 
Delaware. Holmes, hearing of the whereabouts of 
the runaway, wrote begging Benjamin to return to 
his anxious family and friends. The lad wrote ex- 
plaining why he could not do so. This letter Holmes 
showed to his friend, Keith, Deputy Governor of Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware. The Governor thought the 
writer of such a letter should be encouraged, and soon 
w^ent to see the young printer, accompanied by a 
friend. Colonel French. Franklin tells of seeing two 
elegantly dressed gentlemen coming across the street 
evidently to call there: 

•'Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to him; 
but the governor inquired for me, came up, and with a 
condescension and politeness I had been quite unused to, 
made me many compliments, desired to be acquainted with 
me, blamed me kindly for not having made myself known to 
him when I first came to the place. ... I was not a little 
surprised, and Keimer stared like a pig poisoned. . . . He 
proposed my setting up in business, laid before me the prob- 
abilities of success, and both he and Colonel Trench assured 
me I should have their interest and influence in procuring 
the public business of both governments. On my doubting 
whether my father would assist me in it, 
he would give me a letter 
to him, in which he would 
state the advantages, and 
he did not doubt of pre- 
vailing with him. So it 
was concluded I should re- 
turn to Bo.ston in the first 
vessel, with the governor's 
letter recommending me to 
my father." 

*'The First House I Slept In 




XI 



EETURN OF THE RUNAWAY 

|. ^RANKLIN wrote: 

H "About the end of April. 1724, a little vessel 

.*-^ offered for Boston. . . . The governor gave me an 

S^f i^t^s^^ rtClX^^- --hea^ 

SirJ-or^^:^:;:^ 

pelrance surprised the family; all -^7' Jj^^^.^i^'/^^ ^^ ^t 
to KPe me and made me welcome, except my brother. 1 ^em 
o see him at his printing-house. I was better dressed than 
ever whfe tn his service, having a ^^^^'^^\ ^'^^'''''J'Z 
hlad r oot, a watch, and my pockets lined with near fi^e 
pounds sterling [$25] in silver He ---^f ^^^^^^J^^ 
franklv looked me all over, and turned to his A\ork again 
'The'journevnien were inquisitive where I had been, wha 

uiy intention of returning to it; a.id, one of them asking 
what kind of money we had there, I produced a handful of 
Tih'r, a^ad spread i't before them, which was a ^md of raree^ 
hoi 'they had not been used to, paper being he mone> of 
Boston. Then I took the opportunity 0^1^"^^^*^^"^ 
my watch, . . . (my brother still grum and sullen). . . . 
This visit of mine offended him extremely. 

"My father received the governor s 
letter with some apparent surprise, 
. but he was clear in the im- 
propriety of it, ^ and at last gave a 
flat denial to it." 

The father gave consent to Ben- ,^^.^ 
jamin's return to Philadelphia, 'I 
writing to Governor Keith that 
Benjamin was **too young to be 
trusted with a business so im- 
portant, and for which the prep- 
aration must be so expensive. ' ' 




XII 

STRANDED IN A FOREIGN LAND 



^l^ylNCE your father will not set you up," said 

JHMa Keith, ''I will do it myself. Give me an 

^m^ inventory of the things necessary to be had 

from England, and I will send for them. ' ' 

Then he decided that Benjamin would better go 
himself and profit by the experience. Franklin, not 
doubting the governor's sincerity, sailed for Eng- 
land in November, 1724, expecting to find promised 
letters and necessary funds on his arrival in London. 
Instead, he learned there that Keith was without 
credit, having debts instead of money, and that he 
was looked upon in London as a rascal. 

Among those on shipboard were Andrew Hamilton, 
who built the first State House for Pennsylvania 
(now Independence Hall) and a kind old Quaker mer- 
chant, named Deuham, who, when he learned of the 
young printer's plight advised him to find work at 
his trade, saying, ''Among the printers here you will 
improve yourself, and when you return to America 
you will set up to greater advantage." 

When Franklin returned to Philadelphia, the ex- 
governor and the young printer bowed coolly, but 
did not stop to talk. Franklin still ''gave the devil 
his due" as follows: 

"But what should we ivy 

think of a governor's play- ' - ii ) / 

ing such pitiful tricks and 
imposing so grossly on a 
poor, ignorant boy! It was 
a habit he had acquired. 
He wished to please every- 
body; and, having little to 
give, he gave expectations. 
He was otherwise an in- 
genious, sensible man, a 
pretty good writer and a 
good governor for the peo- 
ple .... Several of our 

best laws were of his plan- 
ning and passed during his ^^scssjawg aaiiui,......,!,.:.' > IH 

administration." -=ss=.ss=. 




XIII 

ONE OF HIS FIRST GREAT MISTAKES 

■ J y FRIEND named Ralph went to England 
^^ with young Franklin. Ralph failed to find 
^^^1 ^ ^ employment as a writer or an actor, so he 
was dependent upon, the sturdy, thrifty 
young printer, who paid his own and Ralph's ex- 
penses and took his unemployed friend to the theater 
besides. After months the self-styled writer and 
actor secured a position as teacher in a small country 
school, and M^ent away considerably in. debt to Frank- 
lin. Soon afterwards Ralph took offense at some 
fancied injury on the part of his kind friend. Of 
this piece of pettiness Franklin wrote: 

"So I found I was never to expect his repaying me what 
I lent to him, or advanced for him. This, however, was not 
then of much consequence, as he was totally unable ; and 
in the loss of his friendship I found myself relieved from 
a burden. I now began to think of getting a little money 
beforehand." 

Franklin seems to have been unfortunate in his 
friends. Young Collins had gone back to Philadel- 
phia with him on his return from Boston. Franklin 
had been entrusted with a little over $100 by his 
brother John to be paid to a man named Vernon. 
Collins took to drink and gambling, and Franklin 
became so involved that he felt obliged to spend some 
of Vernon's money. This caused the honest young 
printer considerable anxiety, and when he was an old 
man, looking back upon a long and honorable career. 
Dr. Franklin wrote: 

"The breaking into this money of Vernon's was one of 
the first great errata of my life." 

As for his arguing apprentice friend, Collins, he 
became a drunken nuisance, and finally went off to 
Barbados as a tutor, promising to pay up out of the 
first money he earned, but Franklin wrote, "I never 
heard of him after." 



XIV 



FINDING FEIENDS IN LONDON 



■ yEANKLIN first found work at Palmer's, a 

■ f famous printing house, where he staved a 
^J . ^ rear. While there he wrote his * ' Disserta- 
tion on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and 

Pain, ' ' which he dedicated to his friend Ealph. It 
was an original and rather radical essay for a boy of 
nineteen, but it gained for him consideration and 
friends. In fact, everything he did seemed to attract 
others to him. By his swinimiug feats he won the 
friendship of a young man of "quality," named 
Wygate, whom he quickly taught to swim. This young 
man invited others to go with him and his wonderful 
friend on a river excursion, of which Franklin relates : 

''In our return, at the reqxiest of the company ... I 
stripped and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriars [about 
three miles around by the Thames! performing on the way 
many feats of activity, both upon and under the water, that 
surprised and pleased those to whom they were novelties. " 
And later : 

"I was. to my surprise, sent for by a great man I knew 
only by name, a Sir William Wyndham, and I waited upon 
him. . . . He had two sons about to set out on their travels: 
he wished to have them taught swimming, and proposed to 
gratify me handsomely if I would teach them. ... I thought 
it quite likely that if I were to remain in England and open 
a swimming school I might get a good deal of money." 

Late in life Franklin told of other swimming ex- 
ploits. One he describes as follows: 

"Being desirous of amusing my- 
self with my kite and enjoying at 
the same time the pleasure of swim- 
ing ... I found that, lying on my 
back and holding the stick in my 
hands. I was drawn along the sur- 
face of the water in a very agree- 
able manner. ... I began to cross 
the pond with my kite, which car- 
ried me quite over without the least 
fatigue and with the greatest pleas- 
ure imaginable." 




XT 

'*THZ WAXES AMERICAN •' 

- J ^FTEB a working year at Palmer *s, Franklin 
^^^ found employmenr at "Watts *s, a still larger 
^-' *» printing establishment, Trhich paid him a 
little better. It was at Watts 's that he first asserted 
himself for temperanee. He sars of this incident: 

"I drmBk <ndy wata*: the otlier vorkmea. Bear fifty in 
Bvmber, wh« gremt gaxdas of beer. On occasien, I carried 
■p aad dofVB staiis a targe fam of types in both baads. 
Tker ai M de a ed to see, froM this and several iaat^Mcs. tbat 
tbe watear Aaaencaa, as tbey called ne, vas stroBSer tbaa 
tbcwwli'* r\ -mho draBk stroag beer!** 

Pranklin argued that there was more nourishment 
in a jtennvworth of bread than in all their beer. Bot 
they kept wasting their wages, *'and thus," he con- 
tinued. ** these poor wretches keep themselves always 
under. 

When he had been about eighteen months in London, 
Wygate proposed that Franklin trarel over Europe 
with him. giving water exhibitions and swimming 
lessons. He told Mr. Denham of Wygate *s pro- 
posaL but the good old Quaker advised the young 
printer to go baek to Pennsylvania with him, as 
clerk and bookkeeper in his 
store. Young Franklin was 
rath« pleased with the idea, and 
they returned in October. 1726. 
Merdiant and clerk roomed to- 
gether, and everything was going 
smoothly when Mr. Denham died, 
leaving Franklin a small I^acy, 
br.t out of onployiiient, at the age 
of twenty-one. tt - . i^-rzt 




XVI 
THE FIRST FBANKLIN PRINTING COMPANY 

■ yRANKLIN afterwards admitted that he com- 

■ I niitted two great errata. One was the pub- 
Jt >^ lishing of his paper on * * Liberty and Neces- 
sity/' and the other was his failure to write 

to Miss Read, to whom he had been very attentive in 
Philadelphia; she, not hearing from him, married 
a man who afterwards left her, and it was reported 
that he already had a wife who Avas living in Eng- 
land. Franklin tried to correct and atone for this 
erratum by a marriage with that young woman. She 
was the daughter of the man with whom he boarded, 
the same young girl who had laughed at him on his 
first appearance in Philadelphia. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to find a position 
as a merchant's clerk, Franklin reluctantly applied to 
liis old employer, Keimer, who emploj'ed him at a 
high salary to teach several apprentices. As soon 
as the new" hands began to show a little skill 
Keimer became disagreeable, and finally insulted 
Franklin, thus getting rid of him, for the expert 
printer left wdthout further ado. In this way Keimer 
thoughtlessly raised up a formidable rival for him- 
self, as Hugh Meredith, one of the well-instructed 
apprentices, came at once and 
proposed a partnershij) with 
Franklin. Meredith 's father 
furnished the money and 
Franklin hired a house near 
the market. Thus began, in 
1727, the famous printing 
establishment which continues 
to this day, a lineal descend- 
ant of Franklin's printing- 
shop, and is now so widely 
known as the Franklin Print- 
ing Company. 

Franklin^s First Shop 




XVII 

INCREASING INFLUENCE 

' J ^ BQUT this time Franklin organized some 
^r^ kindred spirits into a club which he named 
^^*JL» the Junto. Its members met every Friday 
evening for reading and discussion. They 
wrote papers on all sorts of themes, such as, ''Hovr 
may smoky chimneys be best cured?" and, ''Is the 
emission of paper money safe?" About forty years 
later, in 1768, when the Junto became the American 
Philosophical Society, Franklin was elected its first 
president. 

Another of Keimer's apprentices, George Webb, 
who * ' had found a female friend that lent him where- 
with to purchase his time of Keimer, now came to 
offer himself a journeyman to us." Franklin hap- 
pened to mention to young Webb the fact that he in- 
tended to start a weekly newspaper as a competitor of 
the Mercury, already published by Bradford, the 
oldest printer in Philadelphia. Webb indiscreetly told 
of Franklin's intention, so Keimer, hearing of it, 
hastened to start first another paper which he named 
The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Science 
and the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin, undaunted, 
contributed to Bradford's paper, the Mercury, a 
series of gossipy articles which 
he called the ''Busybody," in 
which he ridiculed Keimer's dull 
sheet and its long name. This poor 
paper, a blatant demonstration of 
stupidity, worried along for nine 
months with only ninety subscribers, 
when Franklin bought it "for a 
trifle," and dropped all its encyclo- 
pa3dic name but The Pennsylvaina 
Gazette, which is still published 
^,1 weekly as The Saturday Evening 

Franklin's First Post. 
Portratt 




XVIII 

AMEEICA'S FIEST GEEAT HUMOEIST AND 
ADVEETISTNG MAN 

IN niauy respects Benjamin Franklin seemed to 
be centuries in ach'anee of his time. He filled 
his newspaper with wit and wisdom not found 
in the book from which his plodding competi- 
tors copied when there were no events or incidents to 
chronicle. ''No news" was ''good news" to the 
readers of the Tennsylvania Gazette while Franklin 
was its editor and publisher. He wrote bright, 
snappy letters to his own paper, signing them, accord- 
ing to their tenor, "Alice Addertongue, " *'Bob 
Brief," "Anthony Afterwit," and so on. When 
nothing better was at hand, he would turn himself 
into ' ' copy, ' ' once entertaining his readers with a 
witty account, filled with puns, of his falling into a 
barrel of tar. His paper abounded in humor, science, 
gossip, literature — everything that is found in the 
modern newspaper; it became the most popular and 
influential journal south of New York. In addition 
to being the first great American humorist, Franklin 
was far and aAvay in advance of his time in the matter 
of advertising. He wrote many "ads" for his pa- 
trons and on his own account. The advertisement he 
published about his mother-in-law's itch ointment was 
worthy of a better subject. The greatest hit he 
made, in an advertising way, was the grave an- 
nouncement, in his first "Poor Eichard's Alma- 
nack," of the exact day, hour and minute, when 
the death of Titan Leeds, the publisher of an old 
and successful almanac, should take place. Leeds, 
as intended, came out with a violent denial — de- 
claring that he did not die as stated, and that 
"Poor Eichard" was "a Fool, a Lyar and a con- 
ceited Scribler. ' ' This w^as just what Franklin 
wanted, for it advertised "Poor Eichard," of which 
the circulation soon surpassed that of his enraged 
competitor. 



XIX 

"POOR RICHARD" AND HIS "ALMANACK." 

t^ ^ ^ HE old almanacs used to take the place 
L^\ of the magazines Avhich were not then 
^^^ published as now. Each printer in Phila- 
delphia published one of those annual 
pamphlets in large numbers. The one printed by 
Franklin was composed by Thomas Godfrey, who 
lived over the printing shop, and Franklin boarded 
with the family. But Thomas became offended with 
Franklin and moved away, taking his almanac to an- 
other printer for publication. But Franklin was too 
resourceful to be disheartened. An almanac was a 
lucrative kind of printing. It could be done through- 
out the year. The young printer decided to make 
the calculations and write an almanac himself. 
Realizing that the computations and predictions of 
a young man would carry but little weight with the 
people, he pretended to print the annual of a poor 
old "philomath and star-gazer" named Richard 
Saunders, whom he called * * Poor Richard. ' ' He 
boldly introduced himself in this new character in 
his first almanac (that of 1733) as follows: 

"CouETEors Reader: I might in this place attempt to 
gain thy favor by declaring that I write Almanacks witli 
no other end in view than that of the public good, but in 
this I should not be sincere; and men are now-a-days too 
Avise to be deceived by pretences, how specious so ever. 
The plain truth of the matter is I am excessive poor, and 
my wife, good woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; sho 
cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her shift of tow, 
while I do nothing but gaze at the stars; and has threatened 
more than once to burn all my books and rattling trap« 
(as she calls my instruments), if I do not mrske some profit- 
able use of them for the good of my family.'" 

Thus "Poor Richard" became the first created 
character in American fiction, and his * ' Almanack ' ' 
was the most popular of them all because of its 
half humorous, thrifty maxims. Fi-anklin wrote and 
published this almanac for twenty-five years. 



XX 



A TEUE PHILANTHROPIST 



M yBANKLIN asks, ''What signifies philosophy 
JL ■! that does not apply to some use?'' He was 
/* ■• eminently practical. Though a ** savant 
among savages, ' ' he gave no time to useless 
speculation. Some of his simple, homely questions 
in the Junto resulted in the practical benefit and com- 
fort of mankind. He asked there why a candle flame 
tapers up to a point, and brought forth a draft lamp 
before Argand invented his burner applying the 
same principle. He answered his own query, * ' How 
may smoky chimneys best be cured?" with the 
Franklin stove, which has imparted warmth and 
comfort to many millions. He invented and im- 
proved many little conveniences now in common use. 
With all his thrift in money matters Franklin would 
never patent any of his inventions. He wrote to a 
friend: ''I have no private interest in the reception 
of my inventions by the world, having never made 
nor proposed to make the least profit by any of 
them." 

Though he was the Edison of his time, Franklin 
was a public benefactor because of his pui3lic spirit, 
founding **a college, a library, a ^ 
newspaper, a magazine, a learned so- 
ciety, a hospital, a fire company," 
besides organizing the first Masonic 
lodge in America, and inaugurating 
systems of street cleaning, lighting 
and police department. Hume, the 
great English historian, declared 
Franklin to be ''the first writer in 
America." 

lYanklm^s First Slove 




XXI 

''IN PUBLIC BUSINESS" 

^-^•-^ HE first mistake in public business is going 
/ ^ into it, said ''Poor Kiehard, " twenty years 
^i^ after Franklin had entered the general serv- 
ice as assistant postmaster of Philadelphia. 
He had been as saving of his time as of his money. 
At thirty — in 1736 — Franklin was elected clerk or 
secretary to the Pennsylvania General Assembly (then 
made up of forty members). "No gains without 
pains," said ''Poor Eichard." When Franklin's 
* ' pains ' ' began to be rewarded, the smaller honors 
came in upon him thick and fast. He was elected a 
trustee of the Academy he had started (now the 
University of Pennsylvania) ; the governor of the 
province appointed him a justice of the peace — then 
quite an honor. In Philadelphia he was elected to 
the board of aldermen. He was soon made a member 
of the General Assembly of the province of Pennsyl- 
vania, to which he was reelected ten times. 

In 1737 Franklin received his appointment as as- 
sistant and acting postmaster of Philadelphia, where 
he found defects and inaugurated several reforms in 
the postal service. After sixteen years of this service 
the postmaster-general died, and Franklin succeeded 
him. This oflSce for all the colonies made it neces- 
sary for Franklin to travel up and down the whole 
country, when he found that his fame had preceded 
him and made him a man of renown throughout the 
colonies and in England. 

When he returned to Boston, thirty years after he 
ran away from there, he had become a man of re- 
nown. His brother James Avas still unsuccessful and 
unhappy. Benjamin returned good for evil by taking 
James's ten-year-old son back to Philadelphia, sending 
him to school, teaching him the printer's trade, and 
setting him up in business. 



XXII 

"THE KING'S BUSINESS EEQUIRES HASTE" 

"i ^^wj^ HEN Franklin became postmaster-general 
^ Jiy there were seventy-five postoffices in the 
^^^^ whole country. (Now there are over 
sixty tliousand.) The greatest innovation he 
proposed was the running of a "stage wagon" be- 
tween New York and Philadelphia as often as once 
a week whether there was any mail to carry or not! 
Before this the mails had been carried by old or in- 
capacitated men who consulted their own health and 
convenience, sometimes waiting several Aveeks until 
they thought enough mail had accumulated to make a 
trip worth Avhile. When Franklin installed his "fast 
mail" service the wiseacres shook their heads and 
said he was going too fast to hold out long. 

In the war with the French and Indians Franklin 
was designated to induce the people (many of whom 
were Quakers who were opposed to the idea of war) 
to aid and support an army. He once pledged his 
own fortune to those who furnished the British army 
with horses, w^agons and other necessaries. In 
this capacity Franklin met General Braddock, whom 
he tried to advise as to the 
best way to tight the French and 
their Indian allies. He said of 
Braddock : "He smiled at my 
ignorance and replied, 'These sav- 
ages may, indeed, be a formidable 
enemy to your raw American mil- 
itia, but upon the King's regular 
and disciplined troops, sir, it is im- 
possible that they should make any 
impression. ' " ' j,,.„^^,,^ a^uiBraaao. 




XXIII 

"UNITED, WE STAND; DIVIDED, WE FALL" 

' M i pFTER the Stamp Act and the domineering 
^"^ attitude of the British became manifest, 
^-" ■» the angry colonists called a conference 
at Albany in 1754, Franklin printed in the Penn- 
sylvania Gazette, a woodcut of a snake cut into 
sections representing the American colonies and under 
the pieces the legend, "Unite or Die.*' 

William Penn's descendants were called the 
''proprietaries" or owners of the province. 
They refused to bear their due share of the 
expense of carrying on the war against the Frencli 
in defense of their vast ancestral estate. So Frank- 
lin was elected to represent the peoj^le of Pennsyl- 
vania and try to show the king, as well as Thomas 
and Richard Penn, that the people of that province 
had real grievances. The Penn family dallied and 
delayed him, not keeping their appointments, so that 
Franklin was detained in London five years, from 
1757 to 1762. During this long time, however, Frank- 
lin succeeded in obtaining the king's consent to the 
taxing of the proprietaries. On his return the colonial 
agent threw himself with greater zeal than ever into 
the labor of uniting the colonies for the "irrepressible 
conflict ' ' which he saw coming. It was he, more 
than any other ip.an, who made the union of the 
colonies finally possible, expressing his 
life sentiments, with a quiet smile to 
the other signers of the Declaration of' 
Independence: 

"We must all hang together, or as- 
suredly we shall all hang separately." 




XXIV 
*'A GOOD AND FAITHFUL HELPMATE '^ 

■ yBANKLIN returned to Philadelphia in 1762. 

■ I The proprietaries, embittered against Frank- 
^ . ^ lin, succeeded, in 1764, in defeating his 

election to the Assembly. But their 
victory turned out to be a boomerang, for the 
Assembly appointed him to draft a petition against 
them and sent him again to present that document to 
the king. So, in December, 1764, Franklin was back, 
after two years' absence from England, in his former 
lodgings in London. The relations between the mother 
country and the American colonies had become griev- 
ously strained, and Franklin's lot in England was far 
from easy or pleasant. Even the ministry was petty 
enough to slight and insult him personally. But 
Franklin kept his temper and met the spite and in- 
criminations of the colonial governors and the ignor- 
ant misapprehensions of the people with true Ameri- 
can humor. 

While Franklin was in England this time his wife 
died. Deborah Eead Frank- 
lin was said to have a 
temper of her own. She cer- 
tainly had much to try her 
patience with her gifted hus- 
band, but she exercised the 
same charity toward him 
that he had manifested 
toward her. After her death 
Franklin wrote: ''Frugality! 
is an enriching virtue — a I 
virtue I never could acquire 
myself; but I was lucky' 
enough to find it in a wife, 
who thereby became a fixture | 
to me." ''Poor Richard 
once wrote: "A good wife 
lost is God's gift lost." Bt^icyrah BmA Franklin 




XXV 

TOO LATE TO AVEKT A WAR 

IN the midst of the strife Franklin was sum- 
moned to appear before the House of Commons 
and answer hard questions concerning the state 
of affairs in America. His replies were so 
shrewd and masterly that George the Third said to his 
ministers and coiurt: ''That crafty American is more 
than a match for you all." ^ . * 

Franklin returned to America, m the spring of 
1775, when the first battle of the Revolution was 
fought at Lexington and Concord. After reaching 
Philadelphia Franklin wrote back the following hu- 
morous description of the retreat of the British reg- 
ulars from Concord to Boston: 

"General Gage's troops made a most vigorous retreat- 
twenty miles in three hours— scarce « ^e Paralleled in his- 
tory ; the feeble Americans, who pelted them all the wa> . 
could scarce keep up with them." 

The government was then willing to repeal ob- 
noxious measures. But it was too late. Frank- 
lin's faith was strong all through 'Hne times 
that trv men's souls." He proved this by giving 
back $15,000, voted to him by Pennsylvania, to pro- 
mote the cause of liberty. It was then that Franklin 
wrote to his friend Strahan in London: 

"Philada., July 5, 1775. 
"Mk. Stkahan. . _ ,. 

"You are a member of Parliament^, 
and of one of that majority which 
has doomed mv country to destruc- 
tion. You have begun to burn our 
towns and murder our people, i^ook 
= upon vour hands. They are stained 
• with the blood of your relations! You 
and I were long friends; you are 
now my enemy, and, 
"I am, 

"Yours, 

"B. PeanKLIK." 




XXVI. 

AMEEICA'S '^ FRIEND AT COURT. '» 

^m ^ HE French were Franklin 's most enthusiastic 
/ '^ admirers and, since they were the ancient 
^^j^ and natural enemies of the English, no 
one could wield a mightier influence in 
France than Benjamin Franklin. So when they ear- 
nestly suggested that he go right back to France, 
he waived his private jDreferences. He knew that 
England would be glad to catch him on the high 
seas, and hang him as an arch-traitor. But, though 
Franklin was old, he was ''game" to the end. He 
made his characteristic reply: 

''I am old and good for nothing; as the store- 
keepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a 
'fag-end'; you may have me 'for what you please! ' " 
Franklin was indeed the "friend at court" in 
France for the colonies. He had to be all things to 
all men. It was his part of the great game of 
American independence. Many foolish stories are 
still repeated about Franklin 's flirtations in France. 
It should be remembered that at the time of his so- 
called galanteries he was a widower of seventy-five 
and Madam Helvetius a widow of sixty or more. 

Meanwhile he was carrying the crushing load of 
his country's credit. He persuaded and cajoled the 
French king and the court into furnishing the Ameri- 
cans with money and men, and at last a whole navy! 
The French were the first to recognize American in- 
dependence. Other monarchs soon followed. Nearly 
all this time the slow sailing ships brought only tid- 
ings of disasters to the cause of liberty. Franklin's 
optimistic, "Oh, that's all right" became a by-word 
and a song in France. After Howe entered Philadel- 
phia, a gloating Englishman called to tell the Ameri- 
can minister in Paris about it; the grand old phi- 
losopher met him wdth a sturdy reply that later 
events proved to be true: "I beg your pardon, sir, 
Philadelphia has talen Howe!" 



XXVII 
HIS GKEATEST ACHIEVEMENT 

IF Franklin had been an angel from heaven or 
a visitor from Mars, he could hardly have been 
received with more enthusiastic admiration. 
His portrait or a Franklin stove was found in 
nearly every house in Paris. His expressions were 
repeated by everyone, and w^hen he went out he was 
followed by a crowd of admirers. Everything that 
could be so named — like hats, coats, canes and snuff- 
boxes, were made a la Franllin. Painters and en- 
gravers seemed never to tire of representing Frank- 
lin as a demigod, a hero, or the Father of Liberty. 
It was Turgot, a Franch savant, who originated the 
Latin epigram, w^hich has been variously translated: 
'*He snatched the lightning from the heavens and 
the scepter from tyrants." 

This was in allusion to Franklin's great experiment 
Avith kite and key with which he attracted the light- 
ning and proved that lightning and electricity are 
the same. This was by no means his most important 
discovery, but, as it seemed like flying in the face 
of Providence, it appealed to the popular mind. 

The greatest achievement of Benjamin Franklin 
was the originating of ' ' Poor Richard 's ' ' thrifty 
sayings. These entered into the life of the people 
and have borne fruit inestimable in 
American prosperity and progress. 
The maxims have become household 
words in one hundred and fifty lan- 
guages and dialects, to be used daily 
on the lips of myriad millions dow^n the 
centuries. This everyday common sense 
was the key to Franklin's success, and 
that of every man and nation that ap- 
plies the sound and enduring principles 
that Franklin began, as a youth, to 
make the rule of his life. 




XXVIII 
''A MAN DILIGENT IN BUSINESS" 

^ ^ '" AKING into consideration his many-sidedness, 
L '^ Franklin was without doubt the greatest man 
^^■^ America has ever produced. 
On the 14th of September, 1784, Franklin arrived 
again at the same wharf in Philadelphia at which he 
had landed about sixty years before — a dirty, hungry, 
runaway lad. But how different the scene! Many 
church bells rang the glad tidings, and the great 
Liberty Bell added its deep tribute to the Father of 
Independence. From house to house was heard the 
happy news: "Franklin is come home. Dr. Franklin 
is here!" Crowds of fellow-citizens and friends, 
among whom were the chief dignitaries of city and 
State, and of some of the great institutions he had 
founded, met and escorted him to his modest home. 

Here he lived four years with his beloved daughter, 
Sarah, and her children, who helped in entertaining 
the stream of visitors who came from all parts of 
the world to see him. He died on the 17th of April, 
1790, at the age of eighty-four, and twenty thousand 
people attended his fvmeral. He prided himself upon 
the fact that he had been called to stand before five 
of the world 's mightiest monarchs as the champion 
of the liberties of a great re- 
public. He used to quote, as 
the key to success in life, the 
words of Solomon the Wise, 
whose Proverbs are now less 
familiar than his own: 

"Seest thoti a man diligent in 
business? He shall stand before 
kings." 




SOME HOUSEHOLD WORDS BY FRANKLIN 
AS ''POOR RICHARD" 

A penny saved is a penny earned. 

Haste makes waste. 

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. 

Lying rides upon debt's back. 

He that goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing. 

God helps them that help themselves. 

Drive thy business— let not that drive thee. 

Lost time is never found again. 

Empty thy purse into thy head. 

Drink water; put the money into your pocket. 

He that hath a trade hath an estate. 

Have you somewhat to do to-morrow? Do it to-day. 

Early to bed and early to rise, 

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. 

Diligence is the mother of good luck. 

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. 

If you would be wealthy think of saving as well as 
getting. 

At a great pennyworth pause a while. 

If you would know the value of money, go and try 
to borrow some. 

When 'tis fair, be sure and take your great-coat 
with you. 

Be industrious and free. » 

A word to the wise is enough. I 



j;,>: 



. 1910 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 769 735 6 



